Did you know that there are more than 3.2 billion email accounts worldwide and that 95% of consumers are using email? If you’re not part of that 95%, you need to rethink your marketing strategy! In every industry across the board, marketers are finding that more of their consumers can be targeted directly through emails. As nearly 91% of consumers reported that they check their emails at least once a day, it doesn’t make sense NOT TO share your message in a digital format (ExactTarget)!
In our annual survey, we asked members how much they allocate to their monthly marketing budget—unsurprisingly, the numbers were very low in comparison to the average revenue per practice. As many of our members are solo-practitioners and medical spas, it makes sense to rely on inexpensive marketing such as word of mouth and referrals, right? Maybe, but we think you could be doing more with your marketing. After all, for every $1 spent on email marketing, approximately $44.25 is the average return on investment (ExactTarget). Do your email campaigns result in this kind of ROI? Here’s a short list of some things you should consider when developing an email marketing campaign that’s destined for success:
TIMING
Do you know when your emails will be opened the most? Or how about the response rate you can expect when you send emails on different days of the week? These two questions are key to maximizing the amount of exposure you will get from your campaigns. In 2012, Experian completed a study across all industries that found that consumers are most active at night. From 8:00PM-11:59PM, open rates soared at 21.7% with the highest click-through rates during that time period. Furthermore, the DAY of the email directly affected the amount of opens these email campaigns received. Surprisingly, the weekend is the best time to send emails as Saturday and Sunday averaged a unique open rate of 17.8%!
SOME ADDITIONAL POINTS TO CONSIDER:
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Keep your content short and simple. Don’t overload your customers with content. Make your messages meaningful and direct. You can assume that your patients and customers have already received at least 100 messages that day so make your messages easy to navigate.
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Optimize your messages for mobile viewing. Approximately 43% of emails are opened on mobile devices. If your campaigns aren’t mobile friendly, they won’t get read.
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Get your customers’ permission. Be sure to include links to “Subscribe” and Unsubscribe” from all of your communication. If your customers didn’t subscribe or opt-in to hear from you, you may lose a valuable customer to poor ‘email etiquette’.
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Encourage sharing! Your staff members are continually sharing your message to every customer who walks through the door. Why not let your customers return the favor through your email campaigns? All emails should have social share buttons so that your satisfied patients & customers can easily spread the word.
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Cater to your audience. Find out what your customers want to know about and send information that’s relevant. If the majority of your bookings were fillers during the past week, share a message that promotes your filler options or an educational piece on new injection procedures. Find out what they want and don’t hold back!
Jamie Parrott, MBA
President
MedResults Network & MedResults Network Plus
